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Mac Potts, a blind 23-year-old musician from Vancouver, plays a short set at the 2014 Waterfront Blues Festival on Thursday afternoon with United By Music, an organization that helps find opportunities for developmentally challenged musicians.
(Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

Mac Potts has been playing music since he was born. The thing is, he was born blind.

Blind musicians aren't uncommon in blues music – look at Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ray Charles and dozens of others – but at 23, the Vancouver-based Potts is certainly out of the ordinary.

Sitting at the tiny Back Porch Blues Stage on the first day of the Waterfront Blues Festival on Thursday, Potts easily worked through a set of classics, much to the delight of the cramped crowd gathered to watch him. "[On] piano I can do anything, as long as it's not death metal or rap," he said.

He was playing as part of United By Music, a Portland-based group dedicated to giving performance opportunities to people with developmental challenges. "It's like the Special Olympics for music," an organizer told me.

A group of musicians from UBM will play several sets at the blues festival on Friday. Guest artist Marlana Vanhoose will open the second day of the festival with the national anthem at 11:50 a.m. and will play again at 2:40 p.m. at the Back Porch Stage.

The highlight of the day for the group will be the United By Music Allstar Revue at 3 p.m. at the Oregonian Front Porch Stage. Potts, a decade-long veteran of the organization, will play in the backing band of that set – a role he knows well.

"I'm not really a featured artist," he admitted. "This is actually really more something I just do for fun."

He plays most of his shows around Portland and Vancouver, including a weekly stint at the U.S. Bancorp Tower. Even though he can play anything on piano, the blues is something he particularly enjoys. "Soul," he said. "I like music with soul."